Can guarantee this. In Winterhold we have a temple to Jhunal, in Windhelm we have a temple of the old gods or Tsun(Not yet decided whether to just go for one or all of them). In Morthal they don't exactly have a temple though the Longhouse could substitute for it, where they worship Shor and Kyne. The people of Dawnstar have a very warped view of the Nordic Pantheon but worship primarily Stuhn, Kyne and Tsun.
Well I'm working on the interiors but we're looking at over 30 interiors in just the pre-destruction versions. Then there's the destroyed versions which I doubt will take too long, but then there's the restored. If I want to cut corners.. I mean.. some of the buildings in destroyed aren't destroyed and should remain the same. Some of the destroyed will be so wrecked its just barely standing walls. Dawnstar I have yet to start on.

Well Hannibal did march across the Alps with his war elephants, but I don't think Skyrim is their climate. Besides, more then likely they'd become a target for giants who are eager to herd their fur-less mammoth towards their camp.
Welcome! I look forward to reading your opinions on the project this far
Way ahead of you! Discussed this a bit with Wrenik as well a few days ago. We have a merchant stand outside of the palace, a type of Bazaar. In a way you might say the merchant district and the palace district are connected. However I wanted to keep the gateways. Essentially its your typical roof with beams holding it up and a large table underneath for the merchants to peddle their wares. I think that making it a big merchant plaza would be fine, though I'd worry it'd make other trading area's such as in Whiterun and Solitude would feel smaller by comparison. Winterhold was never known as a big trade-capital and so I want to reflect that. We also discussed making the outer walls a bit more, errr.. protective? Thicker and higher walls, we will implement that
As for your caravan idea, I had thought of this before. Why are there no caravans on the roads? We have the mechanics for making the carriage move about so why not use it. Well, there's a reason for that and its bugs. When I tried it out I couldn't get the cart to stick properly, and worse.. when exploring Skyrim and finding a carriage the cart would get stuck on the horse and spasm about as the horse tries to pull forward, it was a hilarious mess. If we can get it right then I would be very positive towards adding trade carriages on the road, but if we can't then I already have dialogue reflecting that trade caravans are becoming rarer between the holds due to the growing intensity of the bandit clans and the Civil War. Aside from the Khajiit Caravan there aren't that many who dare to travel the road with goods. With that said, I would love to get it working but I think we ought to stick to Horse and cart I am also tempted to make some of the NPC's who I've written as pelt merchants and other mover of goods to have AI Packages where they will actually travel across the land, though by foot. Finding someone traveling will be rare but it would be a nice surprise when you do find someone and you might remember speaking with that particular merchant at the Winking Skeever.
As for foreigners peddling wares in Skyrim... Holds does actually add a Redguard caravan of sorts towards Falkreath. Two merchants have been barred from entering the city and peddle their wares outside while the third member peddles the wares from an inn near the Hammerfell border. Spices, special wines, special jewelry and magical trinkets from Elinhir. Other then that, well... We have the Khajiit. I fear the khajiit caravan might feel a little less unique if Skyrim is suddenly full of other races doing the exact same thing.

@mikiep1031: I'll be sure to have a house available for the Dragonborn to purchase once the city is restored
@Rasilon: I thought to do that yeah. When the city is destroyed the entire palace district has been submerged and thus the walls carry towards the cliff before looking as though its about to tumble over. Like most Winterhold Overhauls do. I will, I have noticed this as well and will be utilizing snowdrifts. In some of the area's though where it is flattest the ground is pavement, and while I have added snowdrift the flat ground make sense in my opinion and I don't want to overdo it. With that said, I will be adding more snowdrifts to the other area's. The fence isn't imposing no. I will consider adding a thicker wall, like I use near the college district but I'm hesitant to make it as large and imposing as say.. the walls in Windhelm. Winterhold is the city of mages and I had thought to add some unique aesthetics to the towers, like crystals which can be tuned to Winterhold's defense. While Winterhold was a powerhouse through out Skyrim's history I don't want to do an overkill and make it look impregnable. Especially considering we're going to overhaul the Civil War at one point and the Dragonborn will have to take the city.
@Gahrotgoltfus: It is true, I do go for a very grid-like design. It comes down to the buildings being very boxy and I want to fit as many buildings within a short space as possible. It also makes a city feel more developed and less simple. For cities like Falkreath, Winterhold, Solitude and Riften I think this is a sound way of doing it. You have tight-packed alleyways and buildings towering above you. Considering the lore of these places it adds to the concept that these are cities that have drawn people from the Hold to it by offering labor for coin, no different from how settlements evolved in our real world history. If you look at medieval cities and even old Scandinavian Viking settlements you will find this as well. For cities like Whiterun and Morthal which aren't as advanced and hold closer to the old ways, more open and loosely placed homes is the way to go. With Winterhold I've seperated the city into districts. Which are walled off towards each other, this makes the city feel larger then it actually is when you have everything broken up like that. When it comes to designing buildings I could add rounder corners and place them to make the maze of a city a bit more loose and less uniformed in its approach but not only would this take up a lot more space that I could fill, but it would also make it difficult to add roofs with proper weight adjustments. I had thought to do this and use the typical Winterhold balcony roof-top approach but I decided against as it would take up too much space that I otherwise would like to fill. Instead I made some of the buildings have varying square shapes, to make place for tight alleyways.
I do intend to go back and make changes to Dawnstar, both in the building style and the layout. As your right. Dawnstar doesn't need a grid-like building placement like that, and the building style is far too European and needs to be nordified. I still want to keep the tightly packed docking area, but the rest will be changed, and I do intend to make it loosely placed in those area's.
Winterhold when you first approach it was destroyed in the Great Collapse. So the buildings and walls are for the most part ruined. I am leaning towards taking a Fallout route, having some of the buildings while wrecked, still standing for the most part so the Player can explore them and add a nice dynamic that way, but aside from adding perhaps some fence walls here and there to try and keep wildlife and bandits out, the city is on its last legs.
The original concept was to have the Palace span across a bridge near the College. However I decided against this after speaking with Wrenik about it, as the College not only overshadowed the Palace, but it felt repetitive from the College. I wanted to place it near the Walls to give it a belonging feeling with the defenses. I will definitely have to change it up a bit to make it more defensible. With that said the environment that the Palace finds itself on makes it difficult for invaders to attack, the ground is un-even and the Palace finds itself on a cliff-side. An attacker might find it tempting to scale the walls and get into the Merchants district where the statue of the warrior stands, however they would also have to contend with a magic tower as well as a tight gateway. Perhaps I could add more cliffsides to the sides of the walls in these area's to make it less accessible.
I want to go for the Helgen Reborn route. As time passes more and more people move in, but it will not be as it was with as many NPC's as before the great Collapse. This is for two reasons: one its unrealistic, and two I actually want this to be an open city, and therefor I have to limit how much impact this city will have on the game. Its a cold city so most people might want to stay indoors which works great for the engine's sake, but I can't imagine a few hundred people showing up over the span of a year and the Jarl just welcoming them in. Korir is a xenophobe who clearly distrusts outsiders, and Kraldar while an optimist I'd still imagine taking precautions. Besides, for people to want to move there they'd have to give up everything have, their home, their friends and risk getting killed, encountering dragons or getting robbed on the way.
So the NPC's currently in the mod is a given, and other NPC's who over time move in. One building will be available for the Dragonborn to purchase for himself. I fear there may be a few empty homes, but since the Dragonborn restores the city with a spell, they are part of the package. Perhaps we can find a neat way of doing it. I had this idea that as a part of the College Quest-line you help the two missing apprentices who wished to create a new kind of Mead and in vanilla, died in the process. Perhaps they can open up a meadary. I don't imagine many would want to live near the cliffs, but I'd imagine the Jarl being quite happy about being able to move into the Palace. Being such an unlikable guy, perhaps it is best that he is solitary over there.
Ah yes! I did look up this concept while making my own! Its a great map but I have a few problems with it. The first problem that made me hesitant with using it is that the city now stretches down the roadside. I did not want the city to go too far from its original boundaries for one very important reason: You'll be able to see the city from afar. This is actually a big problem I have with open world RPG's, if you can see Civilization in every direction, you don't really feel like your in a wilderness anymore. Skyrim does this actually pretty well, the cities are often hidden behind mountain-cliffs or a hill, or something that forces you to approach it before being able to spot it. There are a few exceptions like Solitude and the college of Winterhold but these are also only visible from certain angles. The College for instance feels like it could be really far away even when your approaching by the road, however if we start adding city structures that span up the cliff-side that leads down to Winterhold, then all of a sudden you have an exact idea where the city is located which at least for me would be bothersome. I cannot change Solitude and the College's design, but I can try to avoid these mistakes in my own design. The other problem I have is that the College is no longer separated from the city proper with the bridge. Which honestly makes the bridge feel really out of place. If all it is a wall leading up to the College it- well it feels like a rather odd design decision honestly. A bridge makes sense. The concept also has a big keep at the foot of the College which was something I wanted to go for as well up until a fellow developer gave his thoughts on it and it honestly did make the Palace feel very underwhelming. The last problem I have with the design is that the wildlife below the College would have to be swept aside. I had thought to create my own dock district but ultimately I decided against it as felt a bit overkill in the end. Had I been designing a city in High Rock, or Cyrodiil it might've felt more fitting, despite Winterhold being a powerful hold. The Last concept image definitely felt a bit much, I believe those walls and towers are modeled after the keep in Dawnguard. Winterhold would by this token feel like a step-up above all the other cities in Skyrim, heck.. The cities in Cyrodiil as well. While it looks cool it feels a bit much.
@Rasilon: Definitely, approaching the city with the towers and walls broken down, perhaps re-enforced by sharpen stakes here and there to clumsily imitate a defense should be heartbreaking and really bring home the situation the city finds itself in. Hm. I believe I made sure the buildings near the wall didn't have windows, aside from the Palace I mean. I'll have to double check! I could add a layer of walls around the buildings, will need to look at a way to make this work though, as the area would have to be accessible as well.

I did give Falkreath and Dawnstar walls, and while I have intentions of making some changes to Dawnstar, mostly to nordify it, I am actually happy with how Falkreath turned out. I'm leaning towards adding some extra clutter details in the interiors and perhaps adding some extra support-beams to a few of the houses, but beyond that the project is wrapping up
I do intend to change the walls a bit, but the over-all layout will remain the same, with the walls focusing on the Whitehall and the southern gate, with everything else simply fenced.
With Winterhold I could try to add thicker walls but I had originally thought to go for more of a Riften fence defense. While every city in Cyrodiil have thick defensive walls I feel like it may be a bit much if every city in Skyrim have this as well. Winterhold is the city of mages, so I thought I'd balance it a bit with the rest of Skyrim. I could make the outer-walls thicker but I'm a bit hesitant to raise them high and add adding platforms. Will respond to the other posts just give me a minute

I apologize for not being as active as I used to be on this forum but I've been hard at work on Winterhold. In fact I've been a little obsessed with getting it right and I am still not 100% satisfied with the design. I'll post below a bundle of screenshots of Winterhold in its restored state, these are taken in the Pre-Destruction Worldspace and still lack interiors and navmesh. I've decorated the exterior though I did notice that I forgot to decorate the area outside of the barn and the area surrounding the palace. Winterhold feels huge, though is actually slightly smaller then Falkreath. I want to give it a very overwhelming towering stone structure feeling while at the same time giving it the familiar Nordic Longhouse feeling, which is a difficult combination. I feel like I've found a good combination. I wanted to avoid making it feel like Solitude covered in snow.
I'll be creating the interiors for the restored next which will be accessible when the Dragonborn goes back in time and ventures into Winterhold just hours before the storm pummels the shore, hence the entire Palace district remains and the buildings are still standing tall. Winterhold's dock district will be unavailable and frankly I think I'm going to cut it out all together and still only have it mentioned. This is because the absolutely essential mod called Immersive College of Winterhold adds a cave system beneath the Midden where the Player can find ruins of the old dock district. Not only does this district feel very different from how I'm designing Winterhold(Provided I can get a permission from the original author I will rectify this); but looking at the surrounding area, I'd really hate to swap out the wildlife and change the location to suit a small or large docking area. I think having ships sailing to the beach beneath the college is a pretty neat concept and it will give the long stretching path up to the city in the north some actual use. I do not think this requires a lot of buildings to be present. Instead I'm going to opt for the spell simply restoring the upper portion and the dock being lost forever.
The screenshots will include some weirdly shaped tree's. These are from the old LOD from the Tamriel world space, this will be fixed before release.
What I still want to add are the dragonheads mantling the roofs and some remaining decorations.
Screenshots below:

I don't mind implementing a female blacksmith but since my aim is to make Holds as compatible with great mods such as Interesting NPC's I fear we're forced to cut our losses and accept that there is a guy from Hammerfell who is brags about curved swords for the time being. He is not a bad character to be honest and while I was at first a little put off by the presence of like.. half the town now being Redguard, his quirky personality and backstory melds itself quite well into the world. We could make it so that if the Redguard was to have an ... "Accident". A female Nord Blacksmith would make her way to Morthal to take over his shop, this is actually a feature I want to explore for all of the shopkeepers to have at least one possible person who takes over, with a full name and backstory. Seeing as for instance: Whiterun's General Store owner Belethor was to die, as well as his assistant, who is going to run his store? If there's nobody- Will the shop get boarded up and infested with cobwebs? Will someone else move in and take over the store. Inconsequential NPC's did this for Adrian's Warmaidens store if both herself and her husband passed away, their apprentice would take over. However I'd prefer to have someone the player hasn't met yet would spawn somewhere far away and then make their way towards the town and take over after some time has passed. It will make the world feel a lot more fresh and alive, and it would avoid a potential apprentice from dying alongside their tutor.

Sounds like a cool concept but outside of the scope of this mod project. Holds also strives to have all NPC's named and with a background. If we start adding random generated NPC's for the sake of one feature or another, I feel like we're deviating from the original goals of this project.
I can also imagine how this would work in practice. NPC enters sneak mode and unassumingly sneaks up to Player or other NPC before taking stuff, people spots it and cries thief and guards storm the person and hack him to pieces.. Like they do in Riften with the radiant thieves there
While comical, it would take me out of the immersion immediately!
What we could do: Is have quests where the player must find a thief, say as a Guard radiant quest, or.. like we originally thought where you can bump into criminal characters in the cities, like highwaymen in the middle of a dark alley who asks you to hand over your stuff, but.. Once we make it too free on the reigns its bound to become messy

Cailan: Oh hey! Sorry! Well the building is shaped in a way that the area would be empty otherwise. To me it sort of makes sense... Morthal has a very unique culture and tribal traditions which does involve sacrificing livestock. It makes sense that the Jarl would therefor want her own select livestock to cater to her needs, where as otherwise there's a risk of livestock being stolen, there's hunger in the winters, or they need to sacrifice over a certain amount and as such put the needs of the people at risk. I also originally wanted to have a religious ceremony area on the other side complete with runestones and other ceremonial objects but I decided against it as I felt it was a bit too much. Then again remove the farm and what your left with is a big walled in longhouse with nothing inside.
It certainly feels like that, sadly the NPC's also refer to its location, which makes moving it difficult. What I have done is added a farming area near the house and inn, making the farmhouse feel more appropriate but even so... definitely would've liked to move it.
It really felt off to me as well. Then again, there are books written which refer to outlying cities and villages lacking the bare necessities and Morthal is directly described as to lack a blacksmith. The Redguard himself is pretty well voiced and he has a backstory and reason to be there. So for me it makes sense that "Hey I know my craft, I live here now so now it can benefit you". The fact that he is a Redguard and wears a silly costume is neither here nor here. Though it does feel a bit off, it also makes it more interesting. Though Holds strives to add as many Nords as possible to make Skyrim feel more homogeneous which it should be- finding other races who hold certain positions in society shouldn't be too much of a stretch. Nazeem for instance is a snobby Redguard and his a landowner.
Didn't we set up fishing nets and such in the city? Cause I could've sworn I did As for the moss, honestly.. I have always been put off by city overhauls that make cities feel in an exaggerated way.. a botanical garden. Morthal is pretty far north and as such is covered in a constant winter climate. While moss can grow in cold climates I don't really see it making a nice aesthetic considering the surroundings. I'd have to add moss to other area's around Hjaalmarch to make it appropriate which is a bit outside the scope of this mod. Maybe we could make a Moss-plugin if there are many who want one.
I know.. I just don't feel like I am in a un-civilized barbarian Conan-Land if everything feels very neat and clean. Even as Bethesda made them I take odds with as it feels very Follow-The-Yellowbrick-Road. Because the roads use dirt within the bricks there is a lot of surrounding dirt as well which makes the roads feel very broad. I want to make it more like tracks surrounded by grass, and snow or whatever else is appropriate to its surroundings. That way Skyrim can feel a lot less civilized and feel wilder. Making the surrounding ground texture grass or snow or etc.. will also make the roads feel a lot slimmer which I believe will make the world feel a bit bigger.
There are actually various priest-robes on display in the Hall of stories in Skyrim. The area before you use a claw. Dibella priests would wear this:
Dibella was actually worshiped by the Ancient Nords so I don't see why the priests would wear more Imperial themed priest-robes... Unless of course they are affiliated with the Imperial Cult where it would make sense. ... Though the only place there are priests of Dibella is in Markarth which is still fairly Nordic in their beliefs, as far as Holds is concerned.
We naturally also want to add to the other guilds as well, thieves guild also felt very ... un-satisfying. We do want to give the same treatment to all guilds as we're going to give to the College. The college is mostly whats on my mind right now as I'm working on Winterhold and the college quest-line will be very entwined with the city itself.
Mikiep1031:
Well Wrenik is pretty adamant in wanting one, and he has convinced me that why not. So yes, we will likely have an arena in Solitude. Location will be behind the inn.

If we can get the animation right then yeah, it'd work. Would remind a bit of the blink spell in World of Warcraft but I'm sure players who play as a mage would appreciate a safe and easy way to get away from melee enemies. Would also be a cool way to spice up wizard enemies in Holds

Yes but.. it would create a vast problem when we use it randomly on our adventure. It'd have to have a listener which triggers a change of hue every time the setting changes, for instance. You attack the person. Would likely end up with disable and enabling of a new aura.
I'd imagine telepathy to be a neat way of adding into the story but otherwise I'm a bit unsure how it can be done, or.. if it should be.
Taking possession of a person is something I've seen in other mods, could be fun, though I shudder at the thought of how many if else statements it'd take to get the NPC reactions right. Something cool to use in a quest though, absolutely. Perhaps we could have a simplistic version. You have to be within a certain range and you can take control of a person if they are in your line of view. You can then attack or run off with that person, but if you go outside the range then the control is broken, or if he dies its broken. Could be a neat trick to get rid of excess bandits, or.. open a door that's locked from the other side.
Short distance teleportation will likely end up with your character being stuck. Unless we do it like they did with the Vampire bat-teleport thing in Dawnguard, that could work and be fun a trick to use in combat too.
We will epitomize magic definitely. I want to make it a magical story-line, not a: "I drunkenly waddled my way through college, never opening a book- now i'm the principle".
Indeed, he seemed power hungry and insane, his character before then seemed far more composed and cold. He was always arrogant, but if he wanted the orb so badly why did he wait as long as he did, and why did he go visit the Augur of Dunlain. There's only two possible scenario's I'll accept. Either the Psijiic's made him so nervous that in the end he just decided enough was enough and he'd take it to prevent the Psijiic's getting their hands on it, or- .. He spoke with the Augur, which is confirmed by the Augur Himself when you do speak with him, so we do know this happened either way... And something the augur said compelled him to try and take the orb. Why seek out the augur if he is going to take the orb anyway? ... How did he know about the Augur? If he knew, why would he be curious enough to go down there, and to ask specifically about the orb.

Telepathy is a cool concept, but beyond story portions I am a bit unsure how it can be used in the game. Could be fun to explore. Levitation is outlawed by the Empire, but I think it could be a bit fun to explore it to a degree. I'd have to nerf it significantly to avoid players walking into area's they otherwise can't reach due to walls(Like Whiterun if you don't pass the gate, there's just a lot of LOD buildings inside). Teleportation spells sounds fun, but it'd have to be fixed locations, many would argue they can fast travel so there's no need but I disagree. It adds a fun quirk and we did have teleportation travel in Morrowind, so why not. A clear-sight spell is something we've considered as well, to allow you to see secret area's, like hidden cave entrances which are otherwise hidden, perhaps illusions are in place to hide a place etc...
I'm actually a bit on the fence about Ancano. Don't get me wrong, he is one of the higher ups of the Thalmor and is by no stretch of the imagination a good guy. However, in the circumstance he found himself in, I couldn't help but feel like he was a bit of a victim of chance. He is sent there to allegedly foster relations with the college, which the Thalmor considers the real power in Winterhold, a nation within a nation. He is not made to feel very welcome by the students of the college, and from what we can gather, the Arch Mage considers his presence there a bit of an annoyance as well. However, Ancano's role in the story is not as cookie-clutter as I thought the first time I played the quest-line. I figured that he saw the Orb and just took it. A bit of a random and desperate action in my opinion, he could've sent word to Summerset, asked for reinforcements to secure the orb, perhaps he could've negotiated it from the college. Perhaps the presence of the Psyjiic's made him nervous and made him do what he did, or perhaps... He went to the Augur of Dunlain. The Augur mentions that he has been down there and spoken with him, and from that I get the impression that the Augur is the one who convinced him to hijack the orb by any means necessary. Ancano definitely wanted to secure it for the Thalmor, upon securing, why would he need relations with the college? But I'd expect a high-ranking official of the Aldmeri Dominion to use a bit more tact, he had no idea what he was throwing himself at, and he must've known that the College would turn on him the moment he'd try.
I speculate that the Augur may not be a good guy at all, and may have ties to the Great Collapse. This does not in any way justify Ancano's actions, but I do want to go into a bit depth on what Ancano believes, perhaps you could pull pranks on him, steal orders, interact with his bodyguard who otherwise randomly shows up at the end of the labyrinthian. One of the Altmer mages even admit they have a bit of a crush on the guy, I want to build characters I don't just want to wave off Ancano as the bad guy without exploring his beliefs, have him interact as a part of the story before then disposing him. I mean I get it, Thalmor == Bad. Beyond Skyrim did an excellent job in my opinion of portraying the Thalmor. In Bruma you meet two justicars who are overseeing their duties. One of them is set in his beliefs and believe all but altmer are garbage, while the other is far more reasonable. I'd expect Ancano, while rude, to be a bit more intelligent and tactful- I would still have him attempt to hijack the orb thus ending with his demise but I want there to be a puppet-master behind him who's convinced him to do so.

The main focus I want to go for is to make your character worthy of the Arch Mage mantle. I've actually sat down and tried watching the Harry Potter movies for inspiration, and lets be frank, the college quest-line is pretty bland, it lacks a proper red-thread and while the characters you meet are wonderful and have varied personalities, you don't really do a whole lot with them, nor do you really learn a whole lot of magic. In fact you can roll through the quest-line without casting a single spell, which just doesn't make any sense. One could argue that by being Dragonborn, your already utilizing a form of magic, the Thu'um, but still, even so.
So I want to add some quests here and there through out the story, try to introduce the various side-characters a bit more, like 'The Caller' seemed really interesting but there's nothing really all too much you can do with her. There's also the Augur of Dunlain who's just.. there. You also have this massively interesting setting, the city has become destroyed, nobody knows why. Your told that magic must serve man, and we need to be cautious when using it and using it responsibly. The Thalmor who takes on a bit of a Snape role at the college also adds a very familiar magic-school feeling and yet we rarely ever interact with the people at the college.
Spoiler Warning: When the Arch Mage dies, I feel like... what a wasted opportunity, I barely knew this guy. He gave me a staff once, that was it. Dumbledore him a bit please! And then there's Mirabelle Irvine who also passes away who I also... err, she gave me a tour once. The only character I ended up remembering by name the first time around was Tolfdir, because we actually did stuff together.
I want to expand on the story, tie in the Augur, the Caller, the other students, the teachers and arch mage into a proper story that surrounds the Great Collapse and Shalidor's vision for mages. I want the Dragonborn to have to learn certain spells in order to proceed through out the quest line, I want there to be ranks, which grants access to various area's of the college which the Dragonborn must otherwise stealthily access(Which adds another fun little quirk in the quest lines). Give it the Hogwarts feeling, and at the end make the Player feel like they've actually accomplished something, they've earned to become the Arch Mage. Finding magical artifacts for the college to study, learning forbidden spells and exploring places of magical knowledge will be key to this. I also want to introduce new characters into the mix, perhaps add more students as well.
I must admit though that I cannot play Skyrim without Immersive College of Winterhold. Though it sometimes feel a bit overkill with all the flashy orbs, it is definitely a must for the college. So I'm a bit hesitant with adding new corridors and secret passages to the college itself because of that. I might ask the creator for permission to incorporate but we will likely settle for a compatibility patch instead, which works but it will mean I'll have to switch stuff around and I cannot directly make quest dependent alterations and use of the quirky stuff he added in. Like the Pensieve Mirror that allows you to spy on the Jarl Longhouses, or the Lustratorium.

I agree, we will be adding Dragon-heads or.. something to spice it up a bit. I did add some roof-windows to Kraldar's house yesterday to make them a bit less plain, I will see what I can do with the rest. Dragon-heads will likely be the last touch I do though as right now I'm still developing the buildings and piecing together their position.
Its an idea I have for the ending of the extension to the college of Winterhold. The quests to rebuild Winterhold is separate, and if the player chooses he or she can neglect bringing back the city with magic. The idea is that while completing the extensions you've run a-foul of various magical trinkets and artifacts which hold great power, these are required to cast the spell as you would otherwise not be able to. For me at least, I think it would be a nice tie-up of the story and bring that extra bit of magic into the picture. Your taking on Shalidor's legacy, it follows that you walk in his footsteps. Its like the Lich-form in the Undeath mod quest, you can choose and you need to do things correctly, if you neglect or falter in a step then the big wrapped present at the end will be locked to you.
If you've spent time with the architects guild and built up Winterhold to the best of your ability, it is reasonable to think that all that hard work shouldn't go to waste and as such keep it. This is but an alternative that I think really works with the magical theme I'm going for in the extension I will also make it so that you cannot really go on with the extension quests if your not willing to learn or use magic, if that's outside the Dragonborn's expertise then its a quest-line he cannot follow, I may also want to change it a bit with the Arch Mage part of the story to also require some bare minimum of magical training and understanding. Being able to shout is great and all, but if all you can do is cast a simple Ward from that one lesson with Tolfdir, your not Arch Mage material.
It is heavily theorized that it is an exaggeration of his power, and yet I do not think so. The college itself is far too modern looking compared to the rest of Skyrim, it has magical fumes coming out of the ground and clearly also have magical wards which protected it from the great collapse. Had Shalidor simply hired a bunch of builders to do the work I doubt it would've turned out as great as it did, it is far beyond what we can see in Nordic ruins or even fourth era Skyrim cities, the only real rival I can think of are the elven cities of the Summerset Isle's. Shalidor also created an island realm, Eyevea which also speaks to his power, this is confirmed in ESO but since ESO is pretty lackluster in its lore I can understand why we might dismiss it outright. But it does show that as far as the writers on the Elder Scrolls are concerned, he does exceed what mages can do. There is also the Ice Fortress which is absent in Skyrim but I figured had a great deal of magical properties and as such is hidden. I'd imagine Shalidor built this structure as well.
The only real other mention of his powers I can think of is that at some point Shalidor came face to face with the Rourken Dwemer clan and fought them in battle. The leader of the Rourken clan carried the spellbreaker and Shalidor was so impressed by its ability to nullify his spells he created a spell called Shalidor's mirror which casts the spell that it is hit by directly back at the caster, thus trying to mimic the Daedric artifact. This spell exists in Morrowind and the earlier TES games, and the battle between Shalidor and a bunch of Dwemer Exiles have been written about as well, whether a great deal about Shalidor is an exaggeration or not he clearly seems to have been very capable and a step above most mages of his time. I try to compare his accomplishments with the likes of Mannimarco, Davyth Fyr or Vanus Galerion and they all come up short, and these are mages most would instinctively think of as the greatest mages to ever have walked Tamriel. Perhaps there are mages from the Summerset Isle's we have yet to hear about or.. Something, but thus far, it appears that the dumbest race on Tamriel has produced the most accomplished mage in Tamriel's history
Hey Cailan! Glad you could join us
I agree, the bridge really does stand out. A wooden bridge would be far more fitting.
I'd imagine there being plenty of farming area's in the city, the one near the longhouse is just one of them. The Jarl's personal goats or.. something! Need to fill the empty area's with something.
I think it is mentioned that the house only burned down recently, hence why they haven't cleared the rubble yet. I think there'd still be a clear path to it, though the question is whether we should change the design of the wreckage to fit more in line with some of the other new buildings.
Interesting NPC's which is a *Must* adds a Redguard blacksmith to Fallion's house who works the Smithing area. While I'd be much happier adding a grumpy Nord hammering iron clumsily while still trying to shake off last nights mead-induced partying- I like interesting NPC's and I think we ought to try and accommodate it in the project as *everyone* uses it, or should use it. I like the idea of adding mist and idle objects that light up at night, I had this idea for a quest that if the Dragonborn refuses to sacrifice 'someone', mists at night would grow darker and it'd quickly turn into a horror quest.